This invention relates to containers for receiving bodily excretions and which are readily disposable in a water closet.
Bodily excretions such as feces, urine and sputum are either collected in washable and re-usable containers or in disposable containers. There is wide use of disposable containers when the excretions are being collected for disposable, such as in the use of disposable bedpans or in the use of disposable containers by incontinent patients or by patients who have undergone colostomy, ileostomy or urostomy (hereinafter referred to as "ostomy patients"); and when the excretions are being collected as samples, for example as urine samples. Such disposable containers may readily be made from hydrophobic heat-sealable flexible films of, for example, polyethylene, EVA or PVC, but are not then disposable via a WC as they tend either to float, due to entrapped air and to the low specific gravity of such materials and are therefore not carried away when the WC is flushed; or, if they are carried away, tend subsequently to cause drain blockage.
European Patent Application No. 0 010 171 discloses a WC-disposable container or sachet for receiving bodily excretions fabricated from a three-layer sheet material, the first layer which is inwardly presented being of water-insoluble material, for example polyethylene, the second, supporting or backing layer being of water-soluble material, for example polyvinyl alcohol, and the third, outer layer being of water-insoluble, but water-disintegrated, material such as kraft paper which allows the wearer's skin to breathe and protects the intermediate layer from excessive sweat. On being placed after use in a WC the outer layer disintegrates and the intermediate layer dissolves, leaving the unsupported layer to be broken up under the flushing action of the WC and thus enabling the container and its contents to be flushed away. Such a container is formed by sealing together only the juxtaposed marginal edge portions of the inwardly-presented layers. As the layers cannot be intrinsically strong if they are to disintegrate under the flushing action when unsupported by the backing layer, and are not usually strongly bonded thereto, a source of structural weakness is introduced.
Containers that may be disposed of in a WC without the disposer's being fouled by, or even coming into contact with, the contents and having improved edge seals are described in our UK Application No. 2 083 762 A, which was not published before the priority date of the present Application which relates to such containers having further improved structural properties.